First Day of Work at the U.S. Olympic Committee

The interns love to hang out at the dining hall at the USOC! With our attention split between three different sporting events, we all get to bond while watching the game we want!

I can’t believe my first day of work at the US Olympic Committee is in the books! Last night, after the Heat-Celtics game, we all turned in early, knowing we’d need to be well-rested for our Olympic debut. This morning, Melissa, my roommate from Oregon, and I ventured to the dining hall, where we met up with some more interns for breakfast. After a muffin and a bagel, my stomach still had butterflies, and I was getting nervous.

Connor, the other digital media intern, and I drove down to the USOC Headquarters in downtown Colorado Springs, about two miles from the OTC. Figuring out where to park was our challenge for the morning, but once we did, we walked to HQ, ready to start! We were met by Maura, a former intern, who showed us our cubicles, affectionately named the “motorcycle parking area,” because they’re so narrow! She took us on a tour, where we met a plethora of people from all over the country, all united under Team USA, which was really cool. After a few folks, Connor and I had nailed the dance. “Nice to meet you.” “Connor.” “Sarah.” “Where you from?” “The Atlanta area.” “Philly.” We know each other’s majors, schools, strengths, weaknesses, previous internships, and experiences like the back of our hands, we’ve repeated them so often. We’re pros at that, now, for sure.

Our digital media department is quite small, with only four employees, and then myself and Connor on the team. Brandon, one of the managers, showed us how to upload an article onto the website, which was quite tedious work. Then, Anna, another digital media employee, taught us how to organize and upload the athlete blogs to the website, which is very detail-oriented and time consuming. We definitely had fun with it, and are learning a lot as we go.

After work, most of us met in our hallway back at the OTC to go grab dinner before the NBA playoffs. I was just stoked to be able to watch the Phils (and Polanco’s homer!) on television during dinner. While I’m pretty sure I was the only Philly phan in the house, I wasn’t passing up a chance to watch my team! Afterwards, a few of us gathered in the Athletes’ Lounge in our building to watch the Spurs and Thunder play, and, after the first quarter, Connor had the brilliant idea to go get some ice cream at the dining hall. I’m not kidding when I tell you how awesome having McDonald’s soft serve on tap 24/7 is. At the OTC dining hall, we have three huge screen TVs in one area, and they’re always tuned to three different sports channels, which is awesome to take in. Tonight, everyone’s attention was split between the basketball game, the Phillies-Dodgers game, and the LA Kings-NJ Devils game. Afterwards, we all walked back, and finished the second half of the basketball game in the Lounge.

Tomorrow’s another day at work, and another playoff basketball game! Should be another amazing day that awaits us!

The flags for the US Olympic Team and the US Paralympic Team hang in the Athletes’ Center above the dining hall.

The dining hall is the place to be at the USOC in Colorado Springs!

The interns love to hang out at the dining hall at the USOC! With our attention split between three different sporting events, we all get to bond while watching the game we want!

I had fully intended on taking a picture of my McDonald’s soft serve. And then I realized I finished it.

Interns Calli from North Dakota and my roommate, Melissa, from Oregon, enjoy their McDonald’s ice cream at the dining hall.

One of our biggest bonding moments as interns has been watching the NBA playoff games in the Athletes’ Lounge each night.